EARLIER today, a limited number of lucky Aussie shoppers were able to pick up a Dyson vacuum cleaner for just $249.

The deal was part of online discount retailer Catch.com.au’s 12th birthday sale, which kicked off at 10am today.

The sale, which ends at midnight, has been touted as the biggest and best held by the company to date, with deals of up to 80 per cent off thousands of products and big-name brands across a range of categories, including appliances, beauty, fashion and homewares.

Deals will go up hourly throughout the day — and at some point during the sale, shoppers will also be able to snap up a KitchenAid KSM150 Artisan Stand Mixer for $278, and a Google Home Smart Speaker for $97.

Catch Group’s chief marketing officer Ryan Gracie said the popular annual sale would be the biggest yet this year.

“Every year at Catch we celebrate our birthday, and it’s always the biggest sales event on the calendar,” he said.

“The Catch Big 12th Birthday Bash will be the biggest one yet and we’ve got some incredible deals on thousands of products such as $150 off a Dyson, over $800 off a KitchenAid mixer and $112 off a Google Home Smart Speaker.

“The birthday comes at an exciting time for us as we’ve recently launched Catch Live — a mixture of gaming and shopping online. We’ve also just launched our concept pop-up store at Chadstone … where shoppers can save on our top 500 products.”

Mr Gracie said the birthday deals will be available from 10am on Wednesday, October 17 with new deals going live every hour and special savings from 7pm until midnight.

“There will be limited stock so make sure you jump online at Catch.com.au or visit our Chadstone store for some extra birthday deals as soon as you can to grab your unbelievable bargains,” Mr Gracie said.

Catch.com.au is about to launch its ‘biggest-ever birthday sale’. Picture: Catch.com.auSource:Supplied

Catch.com.au is not the only retailer to jump on the online sales bonanza.

Last week, Australian online retailer Kogan.com vowed to “break the internet” during a surprise two-day sale which was touted as “the biggest sale Australian online shopping has ever seen”.

Meanwhile, shopping addicts are bracing for a raft of upcoming sales, including Vogue Online Shopping Night, which will take place on October 24-25, Singles’ Day on November 11, Click Frenzy on November 13, Black Friday on November 23 and Cyber Monday on November 26.

However, these sales are not without their share of criticism.

When Click Frenzy launched in 2012 as Australia’s answer to big international online sales like Cyber Monday, the website’s servers crashed, meaning many shoppers missed out on bargains and retailers lost valuable sales.

In November last year, many Click Frenzy shoppers were left disappointed after a number of web pages at partnering retailers failed to keep up with the sudden surge in demand.

And after this year’s event, many unhappy consumers took to social media to complain about sold-out deals, alerts that never arrived and crashed web pages.

Meanwhile, last year’s Black Friday sales in the US sparked violence and brawls among shoppers competing over deals in some stores, with some keen bargain hunters reportedly attempting to pose as staff members to beat the lines.